Jim Edwards of MMA Latest, this week got the chance to speak to Eric O’Keefe (@OKeefeMMA) , the Canadian-Irish MMA coach at Tristar Gym in Montreal under head coach Firas Zahabi.

Eric was one of the several members of Tristar who made the trip to Ireland for UFC Dublin to support Joe Duffy who was supposed to be taking on Dustin Poirier in his first ever UFC main event. Of course the fight never took place, with Duffy forced to withdraw due to a concussion he picked up in the week leading up to the fight.

When the news of Duffy’s withdrawal became common knowledge, several fans, fellow fight camps and media were critical of Joe sparring so close to fight week. O’Keefe had this to say about the criticism:

I can understand the criticism from the fans, as they don’t really know better and they wanted to see Joe fight. But when other camps make negative comments about that, it obviously irks me a bit because they know better.

99% of fighters spar the last Saturday before the fights, including the ones making those negative comments. It’s kind of ironic that some of the people making comments come from a team that had to pull a fighter out 3 days before a fight with one of our guys not so long ago, because he had smashed his face drilling.

But that’s just the way some people are. It’s not even mental warfare as we’re not fighting them, it’s just the way they go about things. We can only control what we do and say, it’s part of the game.

Some of the criticism even went as far saying that Joe Duffy had ‘bottled it’ and simply didn’t want to fight, something O’Keefe entirely refutes:

If Joe didn’t intend to fight, he would have stayed in Montreal and recovered. But he felt good, wanted to fight. The UFC decided to do their own battery of tests, and they concluded he couldn’t fight. To be honest, it shows they have fighter safety as a priority, and I must commend them on that. Joe wanted and felt he could fight.

We didn’t want to be the ones to pull Joe from his main event in his own country, but we would have if it was obvious he was not well. So the UFC doing it kinda took some pressure off us. You always have the “what if” in the back of your mind. Them making that decision removes all doubt and the fight will now happen on Jan 2nd, and Joe will be more than ready. I also want to add that Dustin was a gentleman all week, and it says a lot about the kind of person he is.

Speaking on how Duffy would prepare for the rescheduled fight in January at UFC 195, O’Keefe added:

Joe will have been out of the gym 3 weeks when we get going again. Of course, it’s not like we are starting from scratch. We’ll have to pace him so he peaks at the fight, but that’s our job, and with Firas at the helm, we have a lot of experience in every situation, and I feel we’re in a really good situation moving forward.

Firas and I are very philosophical about it, we’ll find a positive angle in every situation, and that will transfer to Joe. We won’t dwell on the fact he didn’t fight the main event in Dublin, but focus on the fight. It’s the same fight, probably with less distractions in Vegas.

Despite the criticism levied at Tristar during the week, O’Keefe still enjoyed the event about spoke highly about the Irish fans:

It was unfortunate that Joe’s fight didn’t happen. Joe and the team were well prepared for this fight, and it was special for Joe to main event in his own country.

I think that considering the way the card crumbled, the Irish crowd energized the place, and the fighters felt that. I’m very proud of everyone on that card, they came out and made a great show regardless of the situation. That’s what real fighters do, they step up, and every fighter on that card did just that.

The Irish fans are the stars of the night, they’re the best in the world.

Will Fleury discusses incident on “The Fighter” and upcoming bout on December 16th

Earlier this week footage from EFC’s “The Fighter” emerged on social media. The video showed SBG’s Will Fleury being struck with countless illegal blows to the spine and to the back of the head. At first glance viewers would look and see the first strike then await the referee to stop the action and warn the other fighter. Unfortunately, that did not happen, at long last, the fight was stopped, however, instead of a disqualification win for Fleury. It was ruled a no contest. The video bodes the question to what the referee was doing as well as raising the awareness of fighter safety.

Following all the in cage drama, Fleury was forced out of the show after being told he was concussed despite no medical tests being done on him. With everything said and done, Will looks back on the situation with frustration after all the errors made by EFC.

“The situation was a mess on a number of levels. There was huge potential in the show if they’d let me fight on. But they’ve made a series of inexcusable errors that have led to this ridiculous situation. I think they wanted to brush this all under the carpet and pretend it never happened. They basically treated me like I was a problem that they didn’t want to have to deal with.”

When looking at the in-cage issues Fleury does not blame EFC, as it was, of course, the referee’s fault. The manner in which they went about removing him from the show amongst other things is something he found speculative though.

“The EFC is a promotion, their goal is profit, not fair sport. In fairness, they can’t be held accountable for the referee’s incompetence. But, how they decided to deal with it afterwards was very questionable.”

Currently, in MMA, fighter safety is one of the most talked about things, from weight-cutting to late stoppages. Ireland, in particular, takes extra precaution with the introduction of Safe MMA. In his bout, Fleury’s safety did not look like it was in the best interest of the referee. Fleury recalls meeting the ref a week later and showing him the footage only to be taken back and annoyed at the referee’s response of not seeing any issue.

“If your role as a referee is to ensure fighter safety, he clearly failed miserably. Honestly, I think he’s just not competent for the job. I don’t know how long he’s been involved in the sport for but I met him at a show a week later and showed him the video. He didn’t really think any of the shots were to the back of the head, I got so angry, I couldn’t talk to the guy. Also, It was called a no contest because my head was moving apparently that doesn’t make sense either”

Considering his health was at risk due to the referee’s actions, Will is feeling fit and well with no issues coming out of the fight.

“Yeah, it honestly seems fine. I genuinely felt fine right afterwards and in the days after too. I was winning challenges in the house 16 hours after the fight. looking at the footage is very grim tho, who knows what sort of damage its done in the long term, hopefully very little”

For those who don’t know, Will is scheduled to fight Gordon Roodman on December 16th. Not exactly pleased with the new fight offer, he is glad to finally be able to showcase his abilities but doesn’t see this fight as any consolation for what happened.

“I wouldn’t say pleased. But it gives me a welcome outlet for my frustration and I finally have a platform to show just how good I am at whooping ass. No, It’s not really a consolation. I don’t think they give a shit about what’s fair. They just reckon they can make money from me. You can expect a 1st round TKO/KO”

Will has a very close friendship with teammate Ben Forsyth, having fought before he detailed how they became friends afterwards. After mentioning how it’d be cool to fight on the same card as Ben he details that getting those ever so scarce fights at the higher weight classes come first.

“Ben contacted me about becoming less of a twat so I gave him some advice and things blossomed from there. Yeah, that’d be great but our number one priority for both of us right now is just getting the fights.”

Will then went on to detail the hardship in getting fights on the regional scene.

“Yeah, it’s a serious struggle especially when you’re known to be a good fighter and people are trying to look after their records. there’s also just not that many guys. I’ve fought twice and I’m already the best Middleweight in Ireland. If it were up to me I’d have a lot more but still, that shows you how few guys there are. and if anyone has an issue with me being the best Middleweight in Ireland make 84 and I can prove you wrong”

For those who haven’t seen the footage mentioned above, here it is. Be sure to keep an eye out for Will in his upcoming bout a few weeks from now.

EFC was approached for a comment on this footage, however, have unfortunately not responded.

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Today’s MMA news round-up

Today has been a pretty busy day when it comes to MMA news. We’ve had it all today from new champions to commissioners being slapped to fighters being flagged by USADA. It’s been hectic to say the least so here are the highlights of today’s news.

1. Conor McGregor causes havoc at Bellator 187

Yes, that’s correct, Conor McGregor at Bellator. Following the win of his teammate and friend Charlie Ward at Bellator 187 the UFC Lightweight Champion entered the cage to celebrate with Ward, however, their celebrations did not go to plan. Referee Marc Goddard wasn’t pleased with this in the slightest and tried get McGregor out. This didn’t go down too well as McGregor confronted the referee who initially pushed him. See the video here:

Earlier today it was confirmed by MMA Fighting that Bellator would crown a new Heavyweight champions following a report from MMA Junkie. There is no official dates yet, however, they do hope to start on January 20th and crown a new champion by the end of the year. There are some big names bidding to become the new champion, they are:

3. Anderson Silva flagged by USADA for potential doping violation, out of UFC Shanghai Main Event

Former UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva failed a USADA doping test and was pulled from the UFC Shanghai Main Event. The sample was collected from an out of competition test on October 26th. This is now his second time failing a doping test. Last time he was hit with a one year suspension and a heavy fine. No more information on the matter has been made available yet in relation to suspension.

USADA had a field day today in terms of fighters testing positive for doping. Grant Dawson, who has yet to even get a date for his debut was flagged for a sample collected on October 18th. The 23 year old was signed after impressing on Dana White’s contender series where he scored a second round submission on Adrian Diaz.

Featherweight Champion Martin Nguyen stepped up to Lightweight to clash with title holder Eduard Folayang in effort of making history. Many ruled Nguyen out but he silenced all critics when viciously knocked out Folayang to take home another title. See the knockout here: Credit to @Jolassanda for the video.

Things were running smoothly today at the UFC Norfolk weigh ins until Matthew Lopez stepped up to the scales for his bout with Rafael Assuncao. He weighed in 2.5lbs over for his bout. The fight will go ahead, however, Lopez will lose 20% of his purse. Both Pettis and Poirier successfully made weight for their Main Event fight tomorrow night.

7. One new BAMMA champion while Lahore defends his belt in style

Despite some streaming troubles for the first two fights, BAMMA finally got one up in time for fans to see the final 3 fights. In the World Flyweight Title fight, Andy “Taz” Young fell lost his belt to Spaniard Daniel Barez via Majority Decision, After being docked a point in the opening round Barez came back strong to take home the World Title.

In the Main Event of the evening then, the anticipated match up between Alex Lahore and Richard Kiely went down. There was a lot of hype surrounding this one in the build up to the fight but it went as planned for Lahore. The champion pressured for a takedown in the first until finally succeeding, following some work on the mat it looked as if Kiely was about to gain some advantage on top. Only for Lahore to lock in a Kneebar and finish off the fight retaining his belt.

The Cage Warriors Belgium card had an incredible addition today as they announced via newsletter that Karl Amoussou will defend his belt against Dominique Steele in the Main Event. The fight for the Vacant Heavyweight Championship was then demoted to co-main with a change in opponents for Mauro Cerilli. Dutchman Nills van Noord stepped up to face the Italian after Light Heavyweight Champion Karl Moore was forced off the card due to injury. This dampened his hopes of becoming the first Cage Warriors two division champion since Conor McGregor.

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McGregor hints a title unification bout with Ferguson on Irish TV

UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor made his first appearance on Irish television following his mega-money fight with Floyd Mayweather last night on the famous ” The Late Late Show” where he talked about post Mayweather, potential fights, fatherhood and promoted his movie ” Notorious” which follows McGregor from his first headlined PPV against Chad Mendes to win the interim featherweight title to the second fight with Nate Diaz in August 2016.

One of the notable talking points on the show was that McGregor stated he is currently in talks with UFC about a new contract and a potential fight with the new UFC interim lightweight champion Tony Ferguson seems likely to be his next fight to unify the titles.

McGregor has yet to defend his title since winning it in Madison Square Garden last year at UFC 205 and has come under criticism for not defending the title after moving up a weight class to capture the lightweight belt but the Irish man said he wanted to put the division right again by unifying the titles.

The host asked if a potential fight would happen on St Patricks Day in New York but McGregor dismissed the fight by saying ” Leave St Patricks day to St Patrick, I’ll have St McGregor Day”

McGregor also spoke about a potential trilogy fight with fan favorite Nate Diaz and stated that a trilogy fight between the pair would have to be contested at 155 pounds for the title after fighting twice at welterweight.

As of right now, no decision has been officially made on who or when McGregor will next fight but with the recent announcement that UFC would be holding a PPV in Boston in 2018, many have speculated that a potential return for McGregor would take place in the TD Garden as the Irish man as competed in Boston twice and been victorious on both occasions over UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway and Denis Siver.

Expect many questions to be answered by the Notorious one in the coming weeks as negotiations for his return to m.m.a seems to be on the horizon.